Pours a light sunny orange color, wisps on top, thin ring of head around the glass. Nose is a mix of bitterness & funk, some herbal notes in there as well. It does have some notes of oxidization as well. Flavor is a bit better then the nose. Funk, bitterness, sour, oak, and light herbal notes. Light body, good carbonation, tart dry finish.

This was an "interesting" beer, but compared to the other lambics throughout the night, it was closer to the bottom-end. Still, glad to have tried it and appreciate the share.

Bottle at One Pint Pub in Helsinki. 2006 vintage, bottled in 2008. From notes.

A - Poured a dark gold with a nice one finger creamy head. Good to get a head, espeicially since the bottle was split. Hazy body. Strong visible carbonation. Different looking lambic, but one of the best looking I've seen.

S - Lambicy. Who would have thought. Smells the ocean which I thought was a product of the sea buckthorn. Grape skin was very noticable too. Very cool and made me want to get right into it.

T - Really acidic. Very strong. Very sour. I got some berries and fruit notes. I've never had a sea buckthorn berry but that oceany, grape skin taste is there too and combined with a slight berry note, I assume I'm getting close to what a sea buckthorn berry would taste like. Nice.

M - Dry. Very dry. Attacks the mouth like other Cantillons do. Light to medium body and lot's of carbonation.

O/D - The most sour beer I've ever had. A good lambic but too sour to have too many. Strength of flavour and rarity play into this one I think. It was a great beer and it was a pleasure to try. I enjoyed the opportunity and the beer was quite tasty.

Sour, quite exotic fruit lambic with notes of tart berries and fruits. Dry, carbonated finish. Overall quite tasty, well balanced and quite sour. Not quite as good as the redcurrant lambic (Groseille) made for One Pint Pub.

S - Unfortunately this bottle smells a little past its prime; there's an aged, oxidized, slightly papery quality that obscures the lambic and fruit. What remains is very earthy, with notes of cheesecloth, mushroom, and forest floor. There's a brackish, mineral quality, although I'm unsure if that's from the Sea Buckthorn or the lambic itself. A low level of lactic acidity rounds things out.

T - The taste is quite similar, with flavors muted by age and oxidation. More earthy and funky than I anticipated, particularly after Arne's review, with a moderate sourness that increases over time. I'm not sure what sea buckthorn tastes like, but there isn't much readily apparent beyond aged lambic flavors to me.

M - Low carbonation, medium body, super dry, with a surprisingly tannic and gritty finish. While not overly sour tasting, there is a significant amount of lingering acidity that gets the stomach churning.

D - Odd beer, with a strange disconnect between flavors and feel. Trying an 8-year old bottle probably wasn't the best way to experience this beer, as it made the fruit character difficult to discern. Still, old Cantillon lambic is pretty enjoyable in and of its own right. I'll give this another shot if I finally get to Helsinki one of these days.